The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant

The syndicated sex-advice columnist of "Savage Love" tells a no-holds-barred story of an ordinary American couple who want to have a baby, except that in this case, the couple happens to be Savage and his boyfriend.

Skipping Towards Gomorrah: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Pursuit of Happiness in America

Dan Savage eviscerates the right-wing conservatives as he commits each of the Seven Deadly Sins himself (or tries to) and finds those everyday Americans who take particular delight in their sinful pursuits. Combine a unique history of the Seven Deadly Sins, a new interpretation of the biblical stories of Sodom and Gomorrah, and enough Bill Bennett, Robert Bork, Pat Buchanan, Dr. Laura, and Bill O'Reilly bashing to more than make up for their incessant carping, and you've got the most provocative book of the fall.

It Gets Better: Coming Out, Overcoming Bullying, and Creating a Life Worth Living

It Gets Better is a collection of expanded essays and new material from celebrities, everyday people, and teens who have posted videos of encouragement, as well as new contributors who have yet to post videos to the site. While many of these teens couldn’t see a positive future for themselves, others can. We can show LGBT youth the levels of happiness, potential, and positivity their lives will reach if they can just get through their teen years.

What Do Women Want?: Adventures in the Science of Female Desire

When it comes to sex, common wisdom holds that men roam while women crave closeness and commitment. But in this provocative, headline-making book, Daniel Bergner turns everything we thought we knew about women's arousal and desire inside out. Drawing on extensive research and interviews with renowned behavioral scientists, sexologists, psychologists, and everyday women, he forces us to reconsider long-held notions about female sexuality.

The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo

In The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo, Amy mines her past for stories about her teenage years, her family, relationships, and sex and shares the experiences that have shaped who she is - a woman with the courage to bare her soul to stand up for what she believes in, all while making us laugh. Down to earth and relatable, frank and unapologetic, Amy Schumer is one of us: She relies on her sister for advice, still hangs out with her high school pals, and continues to navigate the ever-changing boundaries in love, work, and life.

Modern Romance: An Investigation

At some point every one of us embarks on a journey to find love. We meet people, date, get into and out of relationships, all with the hope of finding someone with whom we share a deep connection. This seems standard now, but it's wildly different from what people did even just decades ago. Single people today have more romantic options than at any point in human history.

Outsmart Yourself: Brain-Based Strategies to a Better You

The brain is an astounding organ, and today neuroscientists have more insights than ever about how it works - as well as strategies for helping us live better every day. These 24 practical lectures give you a wealth of useful strategies for improving your well-being. By presenting evidence-based "hacks" for your brain, Professor Vishton empowers you to take charge of your life and perform better all around.

Return to Blackcreek: A Short Story Anthology

Braden plans a surprise weekend getaway for him and Wes. Two days alone in a cabin with his husband? There's no telling what kind of trouble they can get into. Wes isn't fooled though. He knows this weekend is about more than just a sexy escape. When Braden lets him in on what he has planned, it has the potential to change their lives forever.

You'll Grow Out of It

In You'll Grow Out of It, Jessi Klein offers - through an incisive collection of real-life stories - a relentlessly funny yet poignant take on a variety of topics she has experienced along her strange journey to womanhood and beyond. These include her "transformation from Pippi Longstocking-esque tomboy to are-you-a-lesbian-or-what tom man", attempting to find watchable porn, and identifying the difference between being called "ma'am" and "miss" ("miss sounds like you weigh 99 pounds").

Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman

Hailed by Lena Dunham as an "essential (and hilarious) voice for women", Lindy West is ferociously witty and outspoken, tackling topics as varied as pop culture, social justice, and body image. Her empowering work has garnered a coast-to-coast audience that eagerly awaits Shrill, her highly anticipated literary debut.

Thanks for the Money: How to Use My Life Story to Become the Best Joel McHale You Can Be

Joel McHale pulls back the curtain on his personal journey to stardom! Here, for the first time, Joel reveals all that has molded him into the acclaimed comic actor he is today: a love of performance, a series of boyhood head injuries, and, most importantly, a passion for financial compensation and free shoes.

Pretend

Mason Alexander thought all he wanted in life was something to call his own - something without the family name attached. He got that when he bought his bar in Blackcreek...but then a hard truth opens his eyes that he's been lied to his whole life, and he's tangled amid the family that loves him, a truth that haunts him, and torn between the life he wants for himself and the obligation he feels for his family.

The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee

From the outrageously filthy and oddly innocent comedienne and star of the powerful 2015 film I Smile Back Sarah Silverman comes a memoir—her first book—that is at once shockingly personal, surprisingly poignant, and still pee-in-your-pants funny. If you like Sarah's television show The Sarah Silverman Program, or memoirs such as Chelsea Handler's Are You There Vodka? It's Me Chelsea and Artie Lange's Too Fat to Fish, you'll love The Bedwetter.

Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls

From the unique perspective of David Sedaris comes a new collection of essays taking his listeners on a bizarre and stimulating world tour. From the perils of French dentistry to the eating habits of the Australian kookaburra, from the squat-style toilets of Beijing to the particular wilderness of a North Carolina Costco, we learn about the absurdity and delight of a curious traveler's experiences.

While the City Slept: A Love Lost to Violence and a Young Man's Descent into Madness

On a summer night in 2009, three lives intersected in one American neighborhood. Two people newly in love - Teresa Butz and Jennifer Hopper, who spent many years trying to find themselves and who eventually found each other - and a young man on a dangerous psychological descent: Isaiah Kalebu, age 23, the son of a distant, authoritarian father and a mother with a family history of mental illness. All three paths forever altered by a violent crime, all three stories a wake-up call to the system that failed to see the signs.

Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things

Audie Award, Humor, 2016. In Furiously Happy, number-one New York Times best-selling author Jenny Lawson explores her lifelong battle with mental illness. A hysterical, ridiculous book about crippling depression and anxiety? That sounds like a terrible idea. But terrible ideas are what Jenny does best.

Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish: A Novel

From the incomparable David Rakoff, a poignant, beautiful, witty, and wise novel in verse whose scope spans the 20th century. Through his books and his radio essays for NPR's This American Life, David Rakoff has built a deserved reputation as one of the finest and funniest essayists of our time. Written with humor, sympathy, and tenderness, this intricately woven novel proves him to be the master of an altogether different art form. Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish leaps cities and decades as Rakoff sings the song of an America whose freedoms can be intoxicating, or brutal.

Bossypants

Before Liz Lemon, before "Weekend Update," before "Sarah Palin," Tina Fey was just a young girl with a dream: a recurring stress dream that she was being chased through a local airport by her middle-school gym teacher. She also had a dream that one day she would be a comedian on TV. She has seen both these dreams come true. At last, Tina Fey's story can be told....

Being a black woman in America means contending with old prejudices and fresh absurdities every day. Comedian Phoebe Robinson has experienced her fair share over the years: She's been unceremoniously relegated to the role of "the black friend", as if she is somehow the authority on all things racial; she's been questioned about her love of U2 and Billy Joel ("isn't that...white people music?"); she's been called "uppity" for having an opinion in the workplace; and yes, people do ask her whether they can touch her hair all. The. Time.

The Distance: The Firsts & Forever Series, Book 11

Twenty-four-year-old Jessie thinks he has fellow street racer Kai all figured out. The tall, dark-haired Hawaiian might be gorgeous, but he's also arrogant, angry, and a total menace when he gets behind the wheel. So why does an argument with Kai lead to the hottest sex of Jessie's life?

Why Not Me?

In Why Not Me? Kaling shares her ongoing journey to find contentment and excitement in her adult life, whether it's falling in love at work, seeking new friendships in lonely places, attempting to be the first person in history to lose weight without any behavior modification whatsoever, or, most important, believing that you have a place in Hollywood when you're constantly reminded that no one looks like you.

I'm Just a Person

In the span of four months in 2012, Tig Notaro was hospitalized for a debilitating intestinal disease called C. diff, her mother unexpectedly died, she went through a breakup, and then she was diagnosed with bilateral breast cancer. Hit with this devastating barrage, Tig took her grief onstage. Days after receiving her cancer diagnosis, she broke new comedic ground, opening an unvarnished set with the words, "Good evening. Hello. I have cancer. How are you? Hi, how are you? Is everybody having a good time? I have cancer."

Between the World and Me

"This is your country, this is your world, this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it." In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation's history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of "race", a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men.

Publisher's Summary

On the heels of his Emmy-winning It Gets Better campaign, columnist and provocateur Dan Savage weighs in on such diverse issues as healthcare, gun control, and marriage equality with characteristic straight talk and humor.

Dan Savage has always had a loyal audience, thanks to his syndicated sex-advice column Savage Love but since the incredible global success of his It Gets Better project - his book of the same name was a New York Times best seller - his profile has skyrocketed. In addition, he's written for The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Onion, GQ, The Guardian, Salon.com, and countless other widely read publications. Savage is recognized as someone whose opinions about our culture, politics, and society should not only be listened to but taken seriously.

Now, in American Savage, he writes on topics ranging from marriage, parenting, and the gay agenda to the Catholic Church, sex education, and the obesity epidemic.

Dan Savage is a polarizing kind of guy, he’s one of the bogeymen for the religious and political right, a leading LGBT rights activist and tireless campaigner for marriage equality. He’s also a funny, clever enormously readable and (a characteristic quite rare nowadays) wise writer. This well written and frequently quite moving book will likely particular appeal to certain constituents.

If you are GGG with the whole LGBT marriage equality message this book is a handy guide to your positions and arguments. If you are a Fox News aficionado who thinks that women should not have control over their own reproductive health and two people of the same gender being married threatens your marriage then you may still find this book entertaining and it will give you something to shout at in the car.

Dan calls out the misogynist, homophobic, anti-science and bigoted vocal crowd led by Bachmann, Palin and Cruz one topic at a time. He gives the arguments for issues, many of which aren't even regarded as topics worthy of debate in the rest of the civilized world. It’s a little depressing to hear the level of stupidity that Dan calls out and answers so succinctly. If you follow Savage Love (his excellent weekly podcast) you will be familiar with his brand of pithy and frequently very funny common sense, this is a must read for you. If you have seen Dan speaking on LGBT issues as the “Token Gay” on shows like Bill Mahr or even Fox News you might have noticed how approachable and funny he is. This book gives him room to explore and explain in much more depth but always with that wry good humor we have come to expect from him. This is a well thought through, well structured, well informed and enormously entertaining exploration of the social and political questions which most divide our country…if you care about these issues (from either side) you should read this book.

YES YES YES! I plan to listen to this again. In fact, I plan to buy his other audio books, narrated by him. First, Savage is an eloquent and witty writer who makes his points clearly and thoroughly. I don't always agree with him, but I always find him worth listening to. I generally do agree with him and I find listening to his writing gives me food for thought and new ideas in developing my own world view.

Second, his narration is amazing. I could listen to a grocery list if he read it and feel soothed. He has an amazing voice and listening to him read his own work only makes what is great material even better.

What other book might you compare American Savage to and why?

I would say that hearing David Sedaris reading his own work or Tina Fey read her own work come closest to this book for me - not because they are similar but because all three of these authors as narrators make me so happy. They are so wonderful to listen to. Their own narration adds so much to the written word, enhancing it and making the words so much richer.

What about Dan Savage’s performance did you like?

Everything. Truly. I love his timing, his voice, his pronouncation, his laugh, everything.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Many many parts of the book are moving. However, the most moving part was a story of his mother's last moments. I had heard this before on This American Life, slightly different. Even having heard that, even having cried for this moment before, even knowing what was coming, I had to work hard hold myself together. If I would have been driving, I would have had to pull over because I wouldn't have been safe to drive. I was walking in to work and it took everything I had to not break down sobbing in the building lobby.

Any additional comments?

Dan, if you ever read this - thank you so much for taking your time to write this book and then narrate it. Your work makes my vanilla little life richer. Thank you.

Damn, I had no idea Dan Savage was such a good writer. I'm a weekly listener to his Savage Love podcast and reader of his column, but this was the first time I've read/heard one of his personal essays, and they were very powerful. I sobbed my way through his essay about his mother's death, for example.

Other chapters, however, were rote and predictable to those familiar with his work. Some of the lines he uses I could recite word for word. You should roll your kinks out like they're a fun thing you get to do, not like they're *what*, kids? Let's say it all together now. Leukemia! His thoughts on cheating, open relationships, why women shouldn't be offended that he refers to pussy as "canned ham dropped from a great height" (still offensive no matter how much you like canned ham) are nothing new for regular readers or listeners.

Yet the new chapters were strong enough that I still think this book deserves four stars. In addition to the essay about his mom's death, the essay about going back to the Catholic church — at least physically — is poignant and insightful. The chapter about the It Gets Better project is interesting as well as brutally sad. I learned some new stuff in the health care chapter (for instance, I will never eat at Jimmy John's again). And last but certainly not least, Bigot Christmas is almost worth the price of the book alone.

I live in Alabama. Well, not really…..but they say that my geography (PA) is Phila. & PGH with Alabama in between. And there's really no debating (if one wants to maintain one's sanity) on so many of these issues in my locale. My heart felt vindicated by the sound articulation on topics such as the Affordable Care Act and LGBT rights concerning gay marriage. And being a 50-something catholic heterosexual woman, I learned a few things about a demographic I don't have much contact with. I'm going to read chapters 16 & 17 over many times so I don't get tongue tied in my next debate on these issues. Overall the book was personal, funny, moving (your Mother's death), smart (agains chapts. 16 & 17). Thank you for this. Am now going to tune into your podcast.

I was a fan of his podcast and always enjoyed listening to him help/challenge people to reconsider traditional notions of love, relationships and sex. This book turned me into an even bigger fan of Dan Savage. His intelligence, wit, humor, sincerity, in-your-face advocacy, and even warmth (yes, warmth) all work together to teach, inspire, provoke and feel. The only thing I didn't like about this book was that it ended. Thanks Dan ... keep on keepin on!